Hey guys I'm about to take on the daunting task of transferring my site from one host to another (the primary reason being that I've simply outgrown my current one; their services are much too expensive for about 1/10th of the service I could get elsewhere for 1/10th of the price). Right now I'm FTP'ing a copy of my entire site to my harddrive as insurance. Besides that, what should I be keeping in mind. I'm using this site (http://www.isitebuild.com/hosttransfer.htm) as a sort of guide. Can a pro take a look at that site, and the list, and tell me if that's everything I need, or can can they point to another site with a more complete listing? Thanks, guys. This is going to be a headache, and I appreciate any help. BTW: I'm looking for a good web host. Can anyone recommend one that caters to, and is good with, site that uses a LOT of bandwidth. I mean, 250gig and up.
That looks out of order to me, why transfer your domain name first - then your files - that makes no sense. If you want a trouble free, no downtime approach you simply get your hosting account on your new server active, transfer all your files (if you have WHM it's real fast and easy), then once done you change your nameservers to point to the new server. It'll take from a few hours to a couple days for everything to propagate. It's as simple as that, no rocket science. If you have your files on both servers then you won't see any downtime for those looking at the new and old server. Now, there are ways to do this even better - like setting the DNS cache time to really low before the move so everything propagates faster. I'm not sure the correct way to do that though so I never mess with it. I just do what I suggested in the first paragraph. If you've got any active database users (like forums), disable the boards on your old server before you move them. That way people's posts don't get lost.
I'm not transferring domain, just the host. Misunderstanding? But hmm, okay, it doesn't sound nearly as hard as I thought. Question: What about my databases? I currently run a number of Wordpress blogs on the site. Does this mean I have to create new databases at my new host and re-direct all my settings there?
your should backup your database first before switching to your new host and restore it on your new host then modify the config file to reflect your database and host name..
The best way I have found with no downtime is: Setup the new hosting account and get a temp url from them, eg. yourdomain.theirdomain.com FTP across all your files and images etc and setup any databases if needed on your new host. Change the nameservers to point to your new host. While the propogation takes place a re-direct from your old host, so replace your current index page on your old host with a redirect to your new host temp URL so that visitors get taken to the new host even if their ISP still takes them to the old server. Your database/site will then keep current at your new host with little loss of traffic or data depending on how complex the site is.
i can help with this as i have done this for a few clients, the correct way to do it is not to export the db(database)...please let me know if you still need hosting and to be transfered.